The Revolution in Moscow

The initial overthrow of the Provisional Government was met with resistance, including in the old capital. The cards on display are from a set called ‘Moscow after 24 October-3 November 1917’. Clockwise from top left, we see: the damaged Church of Boris and Gleb on Povarskaia Street, barricades in front of the Miliutinskii Lane telephone exchange, the Nikolaev Palace in the Kremlin, and Prince Gagarin’s house by the Nikitskie Gates. The Library has four other cards from the set, showing two other scenes from within the Kremlin, the City Duma, and Tverskoi Boulevard.

The telephone exchange was fiercely protected against the Bolsheviks, as the barricades show, and the building today bears a plaque to mark the fighting. None of the other three subjects have survived. The Gagarin house was extensively damaged and was pulled down. In the late 1920s, the Nikolaev Palace would also be demolished. The last to go would be the Church of Boris and Gleb, which was pulled down in the 1930s.